Chris Culver Books in Order - Series Guide

Chris Culver is an American crime-fiction author best known for the Detective Ash Rashid and Joe Court series. His first Ash Rashid novel, The Abbey, became a New York Times ebook bestseller and spent sixteen weeks on the list. He writes police procedurals and crime thrillers set almost entirely in the Midwestern United States, in Indianapolis, St. Louis, and the fictional St. Augustine County, Missouri. His books deal with damaged families, motel rooms, farms, quiet neighborhoods, and communities with one too many secrets that they don’t want outsiders to know.

This page lists all Chris Culver books in order, including the Ash Rashid, Joe Court, Hana Blackwood, Homer Watson, and Gabe Ward series, and his standalone novels.

Reading order last verified: July 2026

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Latest Chris Culver Book

**The Man in the Grass** (Joe Court #14),

Where to Start with Chris Culver

→ New to Chris Culver? Start with The Girl in the Motel if you want his longest current series and the starting point into the Mary Joe Court books.
→ Want the book that first made his name? Start with The Abbey, the first Ash Rashid novel, which was also the author’s first New York Times bestselling novel.
→ Prefer a shorter series with a former soldier and former detective? Try Night Work, the first Hana Blackwood book.
→ Want another police-focused series with fewer books to catch up on? Start with Those Who Remain, the first Homer Watson novel.

Detective Ash Rashid Series (Books in Order)

The Ash Rashid series follows Indianapolis Metropolitan Police detective Ash Rashid, one of the few Muslim-American officers working on the force, who he investigates homicide cases and politically charged cases he’d rather stay away from. At the beginning of the series, Ash is studying law and is trying to move away from homicide work, but after his teenage niece died, he got back into the work to solve the very personal case. Ash is often torn between his faith, his alcoholism, his sense of justice, and a place of work that is often against him.

Gabe Ward Series (Books in Order)

The Gabe Ward series follows former Army intelligence officer Gabriel Ward, who is now working as a detective with a background in computers and data analysis. In Counting Room, he starts investigating the murder of a journalist, his own brother-in-law, on a case that makes him face his own past and wonder whether he has to go back to the old life he wanted to leave behind.

Counting Room, 2017

Joe Court Series (Books in Order)

The Joe Court series follows detective Mary Joe Court, who is working in the fictional St. Augustine County in rural Missouri, where she later becomes sheriff. At the beginning of the series, in The Girl in the Motel, Joe investigates the murder of someone from her past. This pushes her toward things she tried hard to leave behind. The series is set in a rural county, with small departments that have limited resources, and with cases full of secrets as small towns usually have them. Court is dealing with a lot of personal history, and that backstory is present throughout the whole series.

Hana Blackwood Series (Books in Order)

The Hana Blackwood series follows former Army combat medic and ex-St. Louis County detective Hana Blackwood, who lost everything: her job, her family, and the life she knew it. She once had it all, but now, starting in Night Work, she is no longer part of the police department. She is now a civilian on the road across America, where trouble finds her at all times while she is trying to solve complex cases especially where she can use her military and police background.

Night Work, 2021
The Lost Ones, 2021
Throwaways, 2022

Homer Watson Series (Books in Order)

The Homer Watson series follows St. Louis homicide detective Homer Watson, a methodical investigator who is dealing with the usual daily pressures of family life, which includes a leaky roof and noisy children, while hating his new job after behind demoted to work in the evidence vault. In the first book, Those Who Remain, a murder investigation pull him deeper and deeper into trouble. Homer is an average working detective who is trying to solve a case while the rest of his life is literally falling apart.

Those Who Remain, 2022
Where I Die, 2022
Broken Empires, 2025
Deemed Accidental, 2026

Standalone Novels

Just Run, 2011
Nine Years Gone, 2014

Chris Culver Biography

Chris Culver is an American crime fiction author who wrote the Ash Rashid series, the Joe Court series, Joe Court, Hana Blackwood, Homer Watson, and Gabe Ward series, set primarily in Indiana and Missouri. He has published more than 25 books since 2011.
Official website: IndieCrime.com

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in September 1981, Chris Culver grew up in Newburgh, Indiana after his family moved there when he was seven. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Hanover College in 2004, which is where he met his future wife. Then studied further, first briefly in law school, then in a philosophy doctoral program at Purdue University, where he also taught as a graduate assistant. He eventually left the program moved to Arkansas when his wife became a teacher there, and he started working at a small liberal arts university in that state teaching courses in ethics, comparative religion, and philosophy. On his official site, he writes about students whose lives were touched by poverty, crime, court cases, and violence, and says those experiences helped him create Ash Rashid.

He was still in Arkansas when he wrote his first Ash Rashid book, The Abbey. Published in 2011, initially as a self-published ebook, it reached the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for sixteen weeks. Since then, Chris Culver created multiple crime series, changing the setting of his books from Indianapolis to the St. Louis area and rural Missouri. His Joe Court series, which began in 2018, became his most popular and also the longest series. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, and continues to publish regularly.

Edited by

Marika

Founder of Mystery Sequels, a reference site focused on listing mystery and thriller books in the correct reading order. I maintain and update the site’s bibliographies as new titles are released, ensuring accuracy and consistency across author and series pages.

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